Goldrush tour – Santogold & Co.

So i just went to my first concert ever. yeah… u read that right. FIRST EVER. it was fuckin DOPE. i saw Santogold and her opening acts for her Goldrush Tour, at House of Blues, here in Las Vegas. the crowd was great. the folks were friendly [and a bit touchy feely… who’s complaining?]. i was even mistaken for a certain 2 steppin’momma’s boy hahaha. so i decided to showcase some of the music i was exposed to here on the blog:

Composed of absolutely no members, Santogold is also the first musical outfit capable of claiming the planet’s broiling collective consciousness as their front woman. Longtime collaborator, singer and songwriter Santi White says of her work with Santogold, “We began trying to write pop songs to sell, which made us depressed, so we started writing songs for ourselves instead.” The results of that self centered conceit is the songwriting work heard for the first time on the full length self-titled Santogold album, released in 2008 on Downtown/Lizard King (US) and Atlantic (UK).

While never concealing their nods to current bands ranging from U2, in scope, to the Strokes, in grit… Low vs Diamond are clearly possessed by those that passed before them. It’s these roots that define the essence of what separates this band from the rest. Low vs Diamond achieve something uniquely intimate with their attention paid to songwriting. Real songwriting.

Recently turned 29, Alice Smith is, on the evidence of her solo debut, ‘For Lovers, Dreamers & Me’ (BBE Records), the most promising female singer-songwriter to go her own enrapturing way in a very long time. Her voice, with its four-octave range, is luscious and powerful and nuanced and finely sensitive to rhythm. Yet it never makes a cult of its own abilities; for all its fantastic manners, Smith’s voice gets on down the road. Sometimes she sings with a booming intensity, yet Smith never loses the unlearnable balance and poise that separates good singers from great ones. And her basic attitudes, which are audible in every unforced phrase she negotiates, are all her own.